MACKENZIE'S VOYAGES
ALEXANDER MACKENZIE Esqr
VOYAGES from MONTREAL
THROUGH THE CONTINENT of NORTH AMERICA
TO THE
FROZEN and PACIFIC OCEANS
IN 1789 and 1793
WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE RISE
AND STATE OF THE FUR TRADE
By
ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
WITH MAP
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. I.
NEW YORKLibrary of Congress, August, 1902
A. S. BARNES & COMPANY
Introduction.
The exact date of Sir Alexander Mackenzie's birth is not accuratelyknown, although it is supposed he was born at Inverness, Scotland, about1755. He came to North America at an early age and obtained employmentin the counting-house of Messrs. Gregory and Co., a connexion of theNorth-West Fur Company. It was while he was with this company that heobtained the experience and knowledge necessary to his profession of afur-trader, long before he undertook his arduous and dangerousexpeditions to the far North. He was soon to distinguish himself. Hisfirm gave him a small venture to Detroit on condition that he penetrateto the back country, which was then almost entirely unexplored, and openup trade with the Indians. He carried out his task in his usualthorough manner, but not without a severe struggle with a party ofEuropean traders, who had already obtained a foothold on the margin ofthis district, and who resented any interference with their monopoly byoutside parties. However, finally the intruders were permitted toremain and share in the trade with the first comers. For many yearsafter {iv} this, Mr.Mackenzie was occupied in trading and exploring invarious parts of the continent, but of these operations we have,unfortunately, little or no record. After the amalgamation of theNorth-West Company with the older Hudson's-Bay Company, Mr. Mackenzieappears to have resided in Canada, where he became a member of theprovincial parliament, representing Huntingdon County. He married in1812, and afterwards bought an estate at Avoch, Ross-shire, Scotland,where he resided until his death in March, 1820.
It is as an explorer of the vast and lonely wilds of the North thatMackenzie's fame chiefly rests. The bravery and hardihood which carriedhim thousands of miles over the prairie and muskegs of the illimitableplains, down the rapids of great unknown rivers, over the ranges ofalmost impassable mountains, will always command the admiration of allwho care for noble deeds. With a small party of Canadianvoyageurs and Indians, in birch-bark canoes, Mr. Mackenziestarted to explore the unknown regions of the North. Skirting the GreatSlave Lake, he finally entered the Mackenzie Rive